


A Man Out of Time

by DizzyDrea



Series: Two Against the Storm [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, Introspection, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-13
Updated: 2013-01-13
Packaged: 2017-11-25 10:06:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/637748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyDrea/pseuds/DizzyDrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It feels almost as though she's been waiting for him her whole life, as silly as that sounds.</p><p>Companion piece to <i>An Uncommon Woman</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	A Man Out of Time

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've finally caught up on the Marvel movies. I know, I know. It's taken me what seems like forever. But even before I'd seen the movies, I'd developed a favorite pairing: Steve Rogers and Maria Hill. I wrote this about an hour after I saw The Avengers. Guess that means I was inspired.
> 
> Disclaimer: The Avengers and all its particulars are the property of Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studios, Joss Whedon, and a lot of other people who aren’t me. I am doing this for fun and for practice. Mostly for fun.

~o~

Maria Hill doesn't go weak-kneed over any man, much less Steve Rogers (that's Phil Coulson's department, God rest his soul). 

And yet. 

And yet there's something about Captain America that she's drawn to. 

He's a man out of time, a man so opposite any man she's ever met that she can't quite categorize him, no matter how hard she tries. 

And she has tried, oh how she has tried. 

In her experience, if she can understand something, know it and set it into its proper place in her ordered existence, she can move on and give that thing no more thought until she needs it again. 

Steve Rogers simply refuses to be categorized. And by doing so, Maria simply cannot move on. 

Steve is a tangle of opposites, at once sweet and steely, charming and commanding. He is affable, genuine and honorable in a way people simply aren't in today's world. 

And his loyalty...that may be the only part of him she truly understands. 

After SHIELD found him and revived him, she was given the task of going through his personal effects. She handed the suit and shield off to Coulson—who'd gone nearly apoplectic with glee—before turning her attention to the only other item he'd had with him: a compass. 

She remembers staring at it for a long time, wondering about the woman in the picture contained inside. Who had she been that he'd kept her photo so close? A sister? A lover? A friend?

She has no idea why the picture was so fascinating, and she's not sure she really wants to figure it out. But she'll never forget his words when she handed the compass to him after he'd boarded the helicarrier. 

She'd remarked on the picture, saying that the woman must have been special to him for him to keep her picture in such a personal place. 

"She was," he'd said, his eyes taking on a faraway gleam. "She was an uncommon woman."

Those words have stuck with her, and even now she can hear the echo of his voice as he uttered them. She can hear the sadness and longing, even when he's moving on and embracing the brave new world he now lives in. 

She can't say why, when other men have tried and failed to garner her attention, the one man who doesn't need it—or perhaps even want it—seems to have captured it nonetheless. It's not like she's been pining for a man, any man. She's beyond petty concerns like that, and her life leaves little room for such things anyway. 

And yet. 

And yet it feels almost as though she's been waiting for him her whole life, as silly as that sounds. 

And perhaps that's why she can't simply dismiss him as she has a hundred other inconsequential things. 

Because deep down inside, she knows that this isn't—that he isn't—inconsequential at all. 

He's a man out of time, but perhaps he's in the right time and place after all. 

~Finis


End file.
